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Textile major Arvind to step into footwear business and Rajiv Mehta-Puma Joins Arvind

Textile major Arvind is looking to go beyond its core businesses. Riding high on e-commerce wave, textiles and apparels company Arvind Ltd is readying to foray into the Rs 30,000 crore Indian footwear market in a big way. The company will launch its own footwear brand in coming days.

"Footwear will be a mix of own brands, acquired, licensed and joint ventures. Initially we will have footwear items from our brands such as Arrow, Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein among others," said Sanjay Lalbhai, chairman and managing director, Arvind Ltd, which aims to bring in national and international brands under its portfolio and retail them mostly through the online platform. The Arvind group has already forayed into the realty market.

As per latest estimates of Council for Leather Exports, India is the second largest global producer of footwear after China, accounting for 13% of global footwear production of 16 billion pairs. Interestingly, 95% of its production goes into meeting domestic demand.

The company has roped in Rajiv Mehta from Puma India to spearhead its footwear vertical. Mehta, who joined Arvind three months back, was heading German footwear firm Puma's India business for nine years.

"Rajiv is looking at our footwear vertical and a few other things which we cannot disclose at this moment," added Kulin Lalbhai, executive director, Arvind.http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/Textile-major-Arvind-to-step-into-footwear-business/articleshow/45973749.cms